


sitting with her in the dark

by blacksandunderstars



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: Rebellion Era - All Media Types, Star Wars: Rebels, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Blood, Canon-Typical Violence, Canonical Character Death, Character Death Fix, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-12
Updated: 2017-10-12
Packaged: 2019-01-16 10:43:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 823
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12341100
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blacksandunderstars/pseuds/blacksandunderstars
Summary: . . . in which the frustrated author gives Ahsoka one possible ending, though perhaps not the one she, or any of us, deserves . . .





	sitting with her in the dark

“Then you will die.”

Around them the temple crumbled. Energy released from the cracking stones hissed and swirled through the air, discharging in arcing bolts which snapped and lashed at the platform beneath their feet.

Ahsoka turned away only long enough to push Ezra to safety with one sharp blow through the Force. Even with her back turned, she could feel Anakin behind her, his intent coiled and poisonous. Her lightsabers snapped on and caught his first blow on blades crossed behind her, showering her neck with sparks and sending her staggering. She let the momentum push her around and slashed as she spun, forcing him back. 

Then the moment she had her balance back, he was on her again. All she could do was fall back, barely turning the hammering red blade aside, trying to create enough space to counterattack. 

Anakin gave her no such luxury. 

He charged, relentless, every swing slamming against her defense. His entire being radiated fury, the rage driving his blows. There was no art or finesse in it. He overwhelmed her, pushed her back until there was no more room on the platform, and then hacked down on her crossed blades again and again. The sabers cracked and spit. Every hit sent a shock down Ahsoka’s arms.

He bellowed at her—no words, a primal sound, all fear and hatred.

Ahsoka fell to one knee under the assault. Then the very next blow twisted one of the hilts out of her grip, and the blow after that bit deep into her right shoulder and down her chest, slicing off the tip of her striped lekku on that side. She screamed and slashed wildly at him with her other lightsaber. It was pure desperation, but somehow caught enough of him, or the suit, that he staggered back.

In spite of the haze of pain, she was thinking clearly enough to expect him to attack immediately. But he didn’t. He merely stood, looming over her, and waited.

The temple shook again as the interior sections began to cave in. Support beams bent and warped around them, the metal groaning under the stress. The temple’s central core glowed like a purple and white sun, and it was growing, consuming the temple from the inside. They were out of time. 

Except it didn’t matter. The duel was over, and they both knew it. 

Ahsoka stood up anyway, breathing hard and holding her remaining saber in her left hand, which was shaking so badly the tip of the plasma blade traced circles in the air in front of her. Her other arm hung limp, and she could feel blood soaking the sleeve beneath her gauntlet.

“I won’t leave,” she said weakly, barely audible above the rumble of the imploding structure around them.

Her vision had blurred too much to see him clearly, but it was his face underneath that mask. She knew it was. The eyes were different, and the skin was scarred and mutilated. But it was him.

“I know,” he said.

And she was sure she could hear a little of his old voice somewhere, buried between the wheeze of his respirator and his synthesized voice. Oh, Anakin, she thought. What happened to you, to make you into this thing?

But there really was no more time. Ahsoka raised her saber in one last unsteady salute, and then stood as ready as she could make herself.

Vader did not return the salute. He held his blade steady at the guard position, while the platform behind him began to collapse.

There was the deep hum of a lightsaber being swung.

She barely parried the first cut.

The impact of the second knocked the saber hilt out of her grip. Against the background roar of the temple’s imminent destruction it made no sound as it clattered to the platform at her feet.

The third knocked her to her knees, her armor flaring orange along the ragged edge of the rift which had been burned through its center. The smell of seared flesh filled her nose. 

But what surprised her was that she couldn’t feel it. She couldn’t feel anything.

The Force was all around her, a part of her. She’d lived with that reality for her entire life. But in her last moment, with her ruined body collapsing, she reached out for it in a panic and it wasn’t there. There was only shadow opening around her, slowly engulfing her.

Maybe it was because she’d forsworn the Jedi way, or maybe this was how it had been for all Jedi, for all Sith, for any being who used the Force—no deeper connection to fall back on at last, just emptiness.

Ahsoka thought of Bariss, right at the end—of sitting with her in a different kind of dark and wondering if help would ever come. Anakin hadn’t abandoned her then.

The core exploded. Her vision went white.

Then black.

Then nothing.

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know what I wanted for Ahsoka. Probably not this. But definitely not some weird tease which gave my favorite Star Wars character something less than a definitive ending.
> 
> Maybe I'll write down some of my other ideas someday.


End file.
